Need a job, nothing in my old industry, what should I do?

[Naetha]

DS will be going to pre-school in April next year, I really need to get a job to make ends meet.

I was originally an environmental consultant, but got made redundant while on maternity leave. There's no jobs within my industry at all, so where do I start?

I believe I have good transferable skills, I was good at project management and report writing. However, I have no project mansgement qualification (Prince2 etc) and no experience in another workplace.

Within reason, I will consider any work - customer service, financial services, admin etc, and as long as it covers the childcare costs with enough left over to make it worthwile, will happily make it my career. However, I still have no experience, and would need basic training.

Does anywhere do entry level work requiring no experience for ~£20k? I'm bright and intelligent, a quick learner and educated to degree level.

What options do I have?

Well I'm not sure I am going to be much help but I'm starting an OU qualification this Sept which I can do at home online etc to totally requalify for a different field of work.

You can have a look at the courses they offer and start one if you like the sound of it?

My hope is that once I have a qualification under my belt it will help me to change careers more easily and of course to be offered the post over someone else

I'm doing a qualification to qualify in working at a playgroup, pre school, nursery or as a teaching assistant. In the hope that this will work around the children for many years to come.

Even if my suggestion is useless, at least I'll have bumped your message for you

Realistically, would an OU qualification make a difference? I already have a degree in Environmental Geology. Realistically what OU qualifications would be worth the time and sacrificed income to do?

Something like a Professional Certificate in Management would take me a year to do full time, but would it really be worth the paper it's written on?

For the job I would like, most seem advertised asking for at least a level 2 qualification. So I have to do this course, no matter what qualifications I have already, they do not apply to children and are therefore not relevant to that field.

I'm not sacrificing income as I'm not working right now and will be doing it in the evenings when the children are asleep in my situation. That is why I mentioned it as you could enrol for a short course for Sept and work it around your child, however I suppose you have to know what you want to do. For example you could do a course for HR management or accountancy if that was what you wished to do instead? Those are the ones that popped into my head but there are million of courses.

Anyway with any luck someone else will come along shortly.

How about doing some temping? Would give you a chance to explore some companies and gain further skills for your CV.

I'm in same situation although ironically I'm a Careers Adviser about to be made redundant! I know I have transferable skills but not easy to find something else paying anything like what I could earn as a professional in my field.

You sound like you have good skills to work in the voluntary sector. Keep an eye on the Guardian on a Wednesday and your local papers. You could possibly volunteer or become a trustee as a starting position?

Being pedantic, but do you mean that there are no jobs in your industry, or that there are no jobs in your industry within reasonable distance of your current location and with the hours you feel are appropriate to your child's age?

I know that there are jobs in related fields available, as its my DH's field of work and my DSiL's field of work, and both their companies have just been hiring again.

I don't think you should sell yourself too short, actually - you're a project manager / account manager with a specialism in sustainability and the environment, and particular skills in report writing. Your post did rather focus on what you couldn't do, and how low a job you'd be willing to accept - do you think you need to focus on building up your confidence again as well as job hunting?

You could try a more work-based course that gives you specialist skills - something like a legal secretary course as they're relatively well paid and your project management/ organisational skills would be valued.... They're often not so long as something like OU or as academic.

Look at local council job adverts, Naetha, your background might help you do quite a few of their positions, especially if you are willing to update your knowledge base by doing a relevant NVQ in the evenings.

HE admin if you are near a University (although we are getting hundreds of applications for every post leading to increasingly and unnecessarily specific job descriptions).

How family friendly employers do you think Unis are, Maria? My ideal job would be 4 days x 8am-1pm, with flexibility to work at home at short notice, and one morning a week at home anyway, and being able to take my annual leave in school holidays for sure.

I always think that's too tall an order for most employers to accomodate!

I work for a university and find them to be brilliantly flexible with my childcare needs, you can also try to work term-time only so the holidays are even longer than school holidays.

I know people with that working pattern but TBH at the pay level you're suggesting working from home with any regularity is unlikely. I would let a team member at that sort of level work from home in an emergency but wouldn't do it as a regular thing. Annual leave in school holidays not a problem in itself, but you would be working as part of a team and there are cover requirements to consider and university admin is full of people with kids so you might not manage all your leave in school hols. Personally I am flexible about letting p/t staff change their days to make sure they can get to school events w/o using annual leave though.